Dear Ibank- Please I will love all bankers to read this

My name is Chinenye, I am a 36 year old entrepreneur. I was so glad when my cousin brought my attention to this blog and trust me, I really must commend the idea behind the ibank blog. It is a good thing that someone from this sector is creating a platform to allow banks, bankers and bank customers to meet on a common ground. Good stuff ibank!

I graduated from Covenant University at 23 and after my NYSC programme, I got my first job with GT Bank. You can imagine the joy and excitement of having to get a good job immediately after school and yes! the pay was good. My family members were glad and most of my friends wished to be in my shoes.

Picture credit: istock

The early stage was awesome; learning new things, meeting new people, learning how to feel important in those corporate wears, waking up early in the morning and heading out even while others were still asleep, coming back late, and so on. After a rigorous training in the school of banking, we were posted to different units and I was to go marketing. I had mixed feelings about the unit, especially having heard the good, bad and ugly of marketing but all the same I decided to take up the role hoping for nothing but the best.

I was a young naïve girl who was full of energy and always ready to try out new things so, immediately I resumed my unit, I attached myself to my manager; Mrs Felicia. She was 44 years and had done 20 years in the industry. She was glad to have me in her team being a young and vibrant girl who was starting her banking career at the same age as she did. She didn’t hesitate to assist me whenever I needed her and she was my ‘bank google’ answering all my questions.

I worked under her for just 6 months but felt like 6 years. It was the best part of my entire banking career. I learnt a whole lot from her; the need to resume early to work, to have a call plan, always have my target market/customer every day, strategize on how best to meet my deposit targets, dress sense and a whole lot of other things. It was really fun working with her but sooner than she left, I forgot the very important advise she left me with; ‘DON’T GET CARRIED AWAY HERE, STAY IN TOUCH WITH THE REAL WORLD’. The day Madam Fel (as I fondly called her) gave me this advice, I really didn’t know what she meant. I got home that night and pondered endlessly on it. I didn’t see how it was possible for me to get carried away; I was just too focused (I thought to myself); besides, is there a world outside this one I already was living in? a lot went through my mind so much that the next day, I met her over this advice.

Madam Fel had been in the banking sector for 20 years and only experienced ‘real promotion’ just twice! Quite alarming right? This is not to say that it is the situation with all bankers but yes, a good number of today’s bankers can relate with this. The only time Madam Fel got a next level promotion was when she jumped banks. She said it became a norm to jump from one bank to another at the end of every three years. I wondered why this was the case considering her level of smartness. She was stuck in her world of banking. She told me how she couldn’t even have any relationship with a man for over seven years of working in the bank because all that was on her mind was the career and how to grow speedily in it. Unfortunately, the harder she worked, the harder she needed to work. At 32, she got into her first relationship but just as expected, it crashed after six months. That didn’t bother me at all, ‘I moved on quickly because it actually felt like a distraction to my career’ she said. She got her first promotion barely two years into the profession, so it gave her the best morale she had ever wanted and made her believe that she could get this on a yearly basis.

Fortunately, after another one year, she got another promotion and at this time, there was nothing anyone was going to tell her about not remaining in this sector. Everything was rosy and she saw the reward for her hard work and dedication. TO BE CONTINUED